Today, when most people have seen, read or heard some derivation of The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, but few have read the original novella, it is a delight to come back to Robert Louis Stevenson’s original story and to be disturbed and revolted anew by Stevenson’s mild-mannered Dr Jekyll and his horrifying alter-ego Mr. Hyde. The Strange Case opens, blandly enough, with an anecdote told between two friends, Enfield and Utterson, as they pass by a particular door in London. Enfield recalls the strange event that he witnessed one night, when the streets were abandoned: a shrunken, horrible little man ran down that street and trampled a little girl who was in his path. Enfield helped the girl’s parents identify the man, who turns out to be Mr Hyde, as weird and off-putting as Enfield initially sensed. Hyde shushes the parents with money drawn from the account of the respected gentleman and Utterson’s friend, Dr Jekyll. Naturally, Utterson is intrigued (as, no doubt, the listener is) and, after some digging, discovers that Hyde is now a beneficiary in Jekyll’s will, destined to profit should Jekyll disappear unexpectedly. The more Utterson delves into the strange case, the more Jekyll withdraws from Utterson and society. Meanwhile, Hyde’s crimes escalate, culminating in the very public beating of a man to death. Eventually, the whole weird tale is brought out, and is even more sinister without the modernized, polished trappings that recent remakings have brought. Unlike The Strange Case, few modern readers are likely to be familiar with the lesser-known, but similarly themed work by Stevenson, Markheim, which is paired with The Strange Case in this audiobook. The main character of Markheim also wrestles with his inner evil, but unlike Jekyll, it seems as though the evil inside him is not so easily separated from the good. Markheim murders a shopkeeper when the shopkeeper suggests that Markheim purchase a mirror (Markheim’s reflection is so hideous to himself, that he becomes enraged by it), and then decides to raid the shopkeeper’s home for valuables. A natural assumption would be that Markheim has reached the very depths of evil with this murder, but we are informed that in fact, Markheim went to the dark side long before, and this crime is but one more on the long list. Markheim gets the unwelcome insight into his hideous soul from a strange visitor, who comes into the shopkeeper’s house as Markheim begins his raid. The visitor eerily resembles Markheim at times, and knows quite a lot about him. Oddly enough, he even encourages Markheim to wriggle out of this latest crime so that he can continue slithering through his nefarious life. Markheim’s attempt at redemption, the possible identity of the stranger (is this another Hyde?), will bring a chill down the listener’s spine on a sunny day, so frightening is Stevenson’s familiarity with the baseness that lurks within everyone. Roy McMillan, who narrates both stories, sounds like an English gentleman, but shifts remarkably between the upper-class voices of Utterson and Enfield, to the nervous cockney maid, to the guttural, utterly frightening rasps of Mr Hyde in The Strange Case. McMillan’s well-trained voice and his theatrical reading enhance both The Strange Case and Markheim.

Content: The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde/Markheim46 tracks(See the tracks list index in the booklet attached)